The first world war was a purely imperialistic war due to its nature and
the motives behind it. The war began on July 28, 1914, with the
declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia and hostilities between
the allied and central powers continued until the signing of the
armistice on November 11, 1918. The war lasted four years, 3 months and
14 days.
The Short and Long Term Causes of the First World War
Analyse the short and long term causes of the first world war
The long and short term causes of the conflict were rooted deeply in
European history as well as in the economic and political polices that
prevailed on the continent after 1871, the year which marked Germany as a
great power.
Germany organised the European balance of power and defeated France in
the war of 1871 which caused France to view Germany as her arch rival.
Such enmity facilitated World War One.
The Factors that led the War to Spread Worldwide
Analyse the factors that led the war to spread worldwide
First World War was fought in Europe, but eventually it spread worldwide
for various reasons. The reasons included; the need to protect colonial
interests, military obligation, lack of troops among imperialist
powers, the rise of sea wars, as well as the rise and spread of
socialist or capitalist ideologies.
The Impact of the First World War on Africa
Assess the impact of the first world war on Africa
Destruction of Africa: World
War One led to the destruction of Africa especially African agriculture
and caused the deaths of Africans who participated in the war in Libya,
Somalia and Kenya it‟s said that more than 100,000 East African troops
were killed.
African nationalism: The
world war led to the rise of African nationalism, it pushed Africans to
demand their liberation and independence especially after the rise of
awareness and the rise of African elites who organised peasants to
demand their independence; Kenyatta, Nkurumah, were some African elites.
Extreme exploitation. The
aftermath of World War One was the intensive exploitation of African
resources because European nations wanted to compensate what they had
lost during the war. New taxes like hit tax, gun tax, matiti tax, poly
tax, head tax and dog tax were introduced. Land alienation increased
forced labour become common, mineral extraction became dominant.
Rise of socialism in Africa: World
War One led to the rise of socialism in Africa after the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917 whereby Africans adopted socialism e.g. Ujamaa
villages in Tanganyika; Common Mans Charter in Uganda, Humanism in
Zambia and Islamic socialism in Libya.
Political re-division of Africa: Itled
to re-division of the African continent among the imperialist nations
e.g. all German colonies were redistributed among the victor powers.
German East Africa was renamed Tanganyika shared between Britain and
Belgium whereby Britain took Tanganyika while Belgium took Rwanda and
Burundi. South East Africa (Namibia) was given to South Africa.
Cameroon was shared between Britain and France the portion neighboring
Nigeria was given to Britain and the rest was given to France. Togo was
shared between France and Britain the portion neighboring Ghana was
given to Britain and the rest was given to France.
The second world war was caused by the first world war. WW 2 in 1939 also affected the african continent.
The great depression: The
first world war led to the great depression which victimisedAfrican
economies leading to the fall of crop prices. In Europe, prices of
African agriculture produce fell, wages of social services were also
reduced.
Africa's involvement in the war:Some
Africans were recruited by the colonial powers to fight on their side.
Many Africans were taken to work as cooks, porters, security guards and
fighters, this led to depopulation in Africa and gender imbalances.
Ranks and medals were awarded to those who had successfully fought in
the war, thus creating a new class of the ex-servicemen.
Fall in produce prices in African colonies: The war led to the fall of
producer prices because of the severe financial crisis that faced the
metropole and the colonies. During the period of war agriculture greatly
declined, European plantations were destroyed or abandoned in order to
concentrate on the war. African cultivation was equally affected
resulted infamine.
Cut down of colonial government expenses: Social
services expenditure was tremendously reduced because of the severe
financial constraints of the war period due to this, colonial activities
almost came to a standstill.
Social miseries: The
war led to misery in various parts of Africa where the people suffered
from homelessness, displacement famine, diseases, fears and
uncertainties. There was an outbreak and spread of diseases like small
pox, meningitis, plagues and venereal diseases like syphilis that were
brought by the returning soldiers. There was a serious outbreak of
influenza between 1918 and 1919 which killed many people.
Warfare associations: World
War One led to the rise of warfare associationsin the colonies as a
method to intensively exploit african resources, such warfare
association included Kilimanjaro native planters, Bukoba coffee growers
and Bataka association in Uganda.
Colonial schemes:Introduction
and development of colonial schemes in order to generate big qualities
and quantities as to increase exports to the metropole, this led to an
influx of European settlers into East Africa, these were mostly
ex-soldiers which meant more loss of land for the Africans.
With increased European settlement in Kenya, settlers became agitated for political power and representation in government.
The Meaning and Characteristics of the Great Depression
Explain the meaning and characteristics of the great depression
The great depression generally refers to the economic crisis which
occurred between 1929 and the 1930s during the period of inter war
between the world's super powers.
It can also be described as an economic disaster which spread throughout
Europe following the collapse of the New York stock exchange in Wall
Street on 19 October 1929.
In Britain it was called "the slump‟ and in German "Die Krise‟ (the
crisis) and Americans used the term "great depression‟. The great
depression began when the stock exchange crashed in 19 October 1929 and
depositors feared bankruptcy and rushed to withdraw their deposited
cash.
The Causes of the Great Depression
Analyse the causes of the great depression
First world war of 1914, this
war created an economic vacuum, whereby during the war many European
countries were incurring high war expenditure while no production thus
after the war the European nations wanted to compensate the gap of
production that occurred during the period, which led to over production
hence low prices in agricultural and industrial products.
Hence low investment which led to mass unemployment that brought low
purchasing power that leads to poor welfare like famine starvation and
death thus great depression.
Multi distribution of capitalist’s economy or uneven distribution of national economy in the capitalist’s nations. Whereby
in pure capitalist‟s nations it‟s only few individuals that happen to
own and control production for instance in U.S.A by the time of great
depression it was only 5% of the population that owned the economy.
Unlike in socialism economy thus any withdraw of such people from the
investments it affect the entire economy thus the fall of New York stock
exchange in 1929 led to the investors to withdraw their money from the
stock market which led to the economic depression of 1930‟s.
Heavy loans during the fighting, heavy
debts from USA to France and Britain were acquired to facilitate the
war even after the war more debts were got from USA like financial loan
to construct the war damaged European nations, the results was when the
pressure to repay loans and interests became greater particular in
Europe, it created an economic situation whereby huge sum of money begun
flowing from Europe to USA.
This destroyed international trade, thus Europeans nations couldn‟t
develop but all of them depending on USA thus any problem on USA economy
had to affect the entire world.
War indemnity of Germany and senseless circle payments, Germany
was asked to pay huge indemnity or repatriation of 6.5 billion dollars
to the victor power first of all this amount of money was too huge for
Germany which had just come from war that led to inflation and created
senseless circle payments.
Germany acquired loan from USA as to pay Britain and France who wanted
to repay the loans from USA, who borrowed Germany thus a senseless
circle payments that anything that would affect USA economy would affect
the entire world economy hence the collapse of New York stock exchange
led to great economic depression.
The collapse of new York stock exchange on 19th October 1929, this
was the immediate cause of the great depression, many investors in USA
and outside USA had invested a lot in USA stock exchange the fall of the
prices of shares, made the investors to withdraw their shares which led
to low investment that led to closure financial institutions like
banks, and credit facilities, hence great depression.
Absence of international institutions like
IMF and World Bank which would have acted as advisors and regulators of
economic and financial issues in the world, like controlling inflation
production, scarcity and financial regulation. Thus its absence in
1930‟s led to great economic depression
Over production of agriculture and industrial products, after
the first world war that period was characterized with over production
of agriculture and industrial output both in the periphery and in the
metro pole, this led to the fall of prices of output of industrial and
agriculture, which discouraged production in the long run, thus great
economic depression.
Political instabilities during
inter war period, this period did not enable many European nations to
engage into commodity production and international trade, it left a
little time for European and USA to engage in economic activities which
led to poor planning that culminated into economic slump.
Bolshevik revolution of 1917, after
undergoing the revolution Russia begun to under go command and central
controlled economy, which narrowed the world market that led to the
piles of goods without market from America and in western European
nations, hence economic great depression.
Poor economic policies like protectionism, were
also responsible for great economic depression e.g. USA during the
inter war period practiced and pursued discriminative economic policy
against world economies she passed the „Mc Cumber tariff‟ in 1922 to
shelter her economies against imports of nation wishing to export more
goods
The collapse of the Austria, as
she was providing loans to the European nations but collapsed in may
1931 due to the withdraw on the French funds the financial crisis was
intensified in Europe.
The recovery program after world war one, the
European nations begun to discriminate the USA goods, and begun the
recovery of agriculture sector which led to the discriminating of
agriculture products in USA that resulted the pile of goods because of
fewer buyers this affected the production and that marked the beginning
of the great depression.
The Impact of the Great Depression on Africa
Assess the impact of the great depression on Africa
Fall of price commodity, it
led to the fall of African cash crops tremendously like cotton, coffee,
sisal and cocoa because the demand at the metro pole was also very low
the peasants and European settlers who were the chief producers of such
commodities almost abandoned the production.
Decline in provision of social services, whereby
the colonial government was no longer interested in the investment of
social services because of severe social crises in Europe.
Establishment of processing industries, like coffee, cotton ginneries an oil refinery as to increase the qualitative and quantitative output in the metro pole.
Intensive exploitation of african resources e.g.
land alienation was doubled, new taxes were introduced, forced cropping
was introduced and forced labour became a common place, this aimed at
compensating the financial crisis that had affected their economy.
Regional imbalance, especially
of transport network whereby railways lines and roads were constructed
in areas where production was high and in places that there was no
transport network
Provision of low wages, especially on colonial civil servants as to minimize colonial expenditures in the peripheries
Lay-offs / retrenchment that
led to mass unemployment in many colonies because the colonial
government reduced the number of workers so as to reduce colonial
expenditure like teachers, nurses, clerks and others.
Development of migrant labourers, since
colonial government increased plantation and labour reserves e.g.
Rukwa, Kigoma and Dodoma in Tanganyika and northern Uganda as well.
Growth of food stuff, the
crises contributed in putting more efforts in the production of food
crops like cassava, banana, soy bean, potatoes and millet because cash
crops had fallen in prices.
Increase in the import industrial commodities in the peripheries as to decrease the stock piles in the metro pole that had lacked the market during the period of severe economic crisis.
The war begun from September 1939 to August 1945; it was fought between
the antagonistic imperialistic nations in two camps i.e. the
Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis Vs the allied forces being led by Britain,
France, USA and Russia, the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis was defeated and
surrendered.
The war was a global military conflict that in terms of live lost and
material destruction was the most devastating war in human history. It
began in 1939 as a European conflict between Germany and an Anglo-French
polish coalition but eventually widened to include most of the nations
of the world.
It ended in 1945, leaving a new world order of a super powers dominated
by the United States and the Union on Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR)
the second world war reached in every part of the world in the five
continents and in 7 seas.
More than 50 million of people lost their lives in this disastrous war,
more than 22 million were soldiers and more than 28 million were
civilians. The real cause of this war is not known but most historians
concur that it was the combination of factors that led to the outbreak
of the world war II.
It was also unique in modern times for the savagery of the military
attacks unleashed against civilians, and for the adoption by Nazi
Germany of genocide (of Jews, Roma [Gypsies], homosexual and other
groups) as a specific war aim.
The most important determinant of its outcome was industrial capacity
and personnel. In the last stage of the war, two radically new weapons
were introduced, the long range rocket and the atomic bomb.
The Causes of the Second World War
Analyse the causes of the second world war
The Versailles peace treaty of 1919, many world historians do agree that
the seed that led to the second world war was sown during the
Versailles peace treaty settlement, the Versailles men who had reduced
Germany to a military cipher and had reorganized Europe and the world as
they saw fit, this created more enemies than friends for example,
Hitler promised to overturn the Versailles treaty, for having humiliated
Germany to that extent, he secured additional support from Germany
peasants, Turkey, Italy too were ill-treated by the treaty and opted to
revenge. Thus the outbreak of World War II in 1939
Formation of hostile camps, after the failure of league of nation
Germany was very successful to create an alliance with Italy, Tokyo and
Japan, thus the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis which forced French to form the
Anglo-French hegemony which was later on joined by other countries and
formed the allied forces versus central power, it was these camps that
the second world war was organized it provide confidence and increase
enmity between the military camps that made the war inevitable.
Hitler and Mussolini foreign policy, this were characterized by
expansionism aggression hatred revenge and domination, Adolf Hitler the
leader of the Germany national socialist (Nazi) party, preached a brand
of fascism predicated on anti-Semitism and racism. Hitler promised to
overturn the Versailles treaty and secure additional Lebensraum (living
space).
German people who he contended deserved more as members of the superior
race he wanted to make the capital of the world to be at Berlin, this
created the outbreak of World War II when they attempted to fulfill
their desires e.g. 1935 Mussolini attacked Ethiopia, in 1938 Hitler
attacked Austria, 1939 Hitler attacked Poland as that resulted the
outbreak of world war II.
Military preparedness and re armament, when Hitler came to power in 1933
having denounced the disarmament clauses of the Versailles treaty,
created a new air force, and re introduced conscription, in march 1936
Hitler dispatched German troops into the Rhine land he withdraw
Germany from the league of nations and begun manufacturing more weapons
preparing for revenge, this act attracted other countries to do the same
thing e.g. Britain and France increased their military budget to
prepare weapons. Such military readiness brought tension which brought
the war in 1939.
Imperialism, German begin the war because she wanted to regain her lost
imperial interesting Africa like in Tanganyika as well as to get more
colonies in Africa, for Italy she fought to get more colonies and
territories, France wanted to maintain and defend her imperialistic
gains from Germany, while Russia was interested in the Balkans and
Britain wanted to maintain her status quo as the shark of the sea with
the colonial empire.
Factors that led the War to Spread Worldwide
Analyse the factors that led the war to spread worldwide
The Second World War was centered in Europe but after a period of time
spread worldwide this was due to some factors; among of them are
colonialism, expansion of military alliances, imperialist interests, the
rise and spread of socialist and capitalist ideologies in the world.
The Impact of the Second World War on Africa
Assess the impact of the second world war on Africa
Involvement of Africa into the war, some Africans were recruited to
fight on the behalf of their colonial power for instance the British
colonies recruited the King African Riffles (KAR) to fight on the side
of allied forces.
The rise of African nationalism, especially after the return of
ex-soldiers who begun to mobilize their fellow Africans to fight against
colonialism after getting awareness, it was attributed both on internal
and external forces.
Formation of United Nations (UN), especially after the collapse of
League of Nations whereby African countries became members of UN
especially those that became independent.
Destruction of African agriculture and economic activities, since the
war reached in African soil like in Somali, Kenya, Libya and other
parts, African property were destroyed.
Intensive exploitation of African resources by the colonialists in order
to compensate the losses incurred during the war although this led to
large scale nationalism in Africa.
The rise of USA as a leading capitalist nations, which introduced open
door policy neo colonialism as compensate what for having not colonized
like European nations.
Spread of socialist ideologies in Africa e.g. Ujamaa village in
Tanganyika, commons mans charter in Uganda and consciousness in Zambia.
Death and suffering, since many Africans fought on the side of their
colonial master, around 100,000 were mobilized in east and southern
Africa whereby, many of them died; there was outbreak of diseases and
hunger that killed many Africans.
Formation of none allied movement (NAM), this was formed in 1955 in
Bandung Indonesia whereby neutral nations who did not belong in side
i.e. capitalism or communism.
Collapse of Italian colonialism in Africa, the war marked the end of
Italian imperialism in Africa following the defeat of central axis Italy
lost her colonies of Libya and Eritrea.
Transfer of mandatory territories to the UN trust ship and the trust
territories were put under the supervision of the UN which included
Tanganyika, Namibia, Rwanda, Burundi and many others.
Intensification of exploitation in the colonies, measures were taken in
the colonies to increase raw materials in the metro pole, a lot of
exports were needed from the colonies to rebuilt the war ruined Europe,
for example new taxes were introduced, land alienation, forced cropping
and processing industries.
Development of rural urban protest, which was attributed to extreme
exploitation in the colonies, mass discontent was developed both in the
rural and workers in the urban centers who manifested in the form of
strikes and riots.
Introduction of new economic, social reforms and social policies in the
colonies for example import substation industries were encouraged in
relation to education the curriculum was changed and the emphasis was
put on hand work and agriculture as to envisage qualitative and
quantitative production.
Environment degradation in the colonies, this was due to the over use of
the environment during that period as to create enough commodity for
export in the metro pole for example land became exhausted.
State intervention in the colonial economy, the colonial state became
increasingly involved in organizing, coordinating and controlling
commodity production in the colonies whereby it involved in marketing of
export commodities by creating export marketing boards for example
coffee marketing board in Kagera and Lint marketing board in Uganda.
Activity 1
Do the following Assignment
- The First World War did not come as thunderstorm but from clear environment. Discuss.
- How did the great depression affect Africa and what were the solutions to the problem?
- What was the impact of great depression of 1929-1933 on the colonial economies ofAfrica?
- Explain the reasons that led the east African nations to participate in both world wars.
READ TOPIC 2: Nationalism And Decolonization
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